AirBnB help for London: where should we stay?

[Anonymous]

Family of 6. No clue where we should stay. Any tips on keywords for neighborhoods?

I've only been to London once on business. I stayed in the business district (Crowne Plaza?) near black Friars and enjoyed walking everywhere. With kids, I suspect we should stay closer to the action so we can easily walk or catch the tube.

Any help with specific areas would be tremendously appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family of 6. No clue where we should stay. Any tips on keywords for neighborhoods?

I've only been to London once on business. I stayed in the business district (Crowne Plaza?) near black Friars and enjoyed walking everywhere. With kids, I suspect we should stay closer to the action so we can easily walk or catch the tube.

Any help with specific areas would be tremendously appreciated.

Age range? Price range? Number of days? What do you want to do/see? What kind of neighborhood do you like staying in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of 6. No clue where we should stay. Any tips on keywords for neighborhoods?

I've only been to London once on business. I stayed in the business district (Crowne Plaza?) near black Friars and enjoyed walking everywhere. With kids, I suspect we should stay closer to the action so we can easily walk or catch the tube.

Any help with specific areas would be tremendously appreciated.

Age range? Price range? Number of days? What do you want to do/see? What kind of neighborhood do you like staying in?

Oh yeah and time of year?

[Anonymous]

August

Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, War Rooms, Tower Bridge, etc.

We will either take day trips to the Cotswolds or perhaps spend a couple nights in the countryside.

I'm just trying to get a handle on neighborhoods. I know that Notting Hill is a schlep, so that's off the list.

Last time I was there I walked everywhere without any issues. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza across from Black Friars in the business district. It was probably a 20 minute walk to the theater district and then another 15 minutes or so to Buckingham Palace and then another 10 or so to Big Ben. We also walked along the Thames to the Tower. We only took the tube out to Notting Hill (otherwise we walked everywhere). But I have no clue what any of the neighborhoods were called and what area I should focus on for an Airbnb.

Re: budget - no real budget. We have 4 kids, so I'm confident an apartment will be cheaper than 2-3 hotel rooms.

[Anonymous]

I'd recommend Marylebone--close to Regents Park, tube stations, great vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd recommend Marylebone--close to Regents Park, tube stations, great vibe.

Good call. Mayfair is good also, next to Hyde Park. Kensington and Belgravia just south of Hyde Park are nice, accessible to the things by Tube, not quite as walkable, other than Hyde Park and Harrods. Covent Garden is right in the middle of the city but will be exhorbitant.

Shoreditch is hipster-ville- think Williamsburg in Brooklyn circa 2012.

Notting Hill is chichi and just far enough out to be a bit quieter- think Cleveland Park, but denser of course because London.

Westminster is convenient walking distance to many things but not very residential- mostly offices and a few hotels.

London is like Paris in that the trains run very often, so as long as you are relatively close in and near a Tube station you can get everywhere pretty quickly. When you are looking at places cross check the location against a Google Map with the transit option on so you can see the Tube lines/stations.

[Anonymous]

We loved Covent Garden.
Walked everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Bloomsbury is always my recommended place to stay when people ask me about London. It's so convenient and quintessentially London with the squares. You have the British Museum in the neighborhood and as it's also home to various schools of the University of London there's an large resident population of young people and academics. The Brunswick Centre has a supermarket that's handy if you're self-catering in your AirBnB, plus a range of restaurants. It's also easy walking distance to Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, the theatres and shopping and Chinatown, while being slightly removed from the action so it's quieter. Very handily served by the underground so you can get all over London easily and it's also a straight shot to South Kensington for the V&A. Just north of Bloomsbury is Kings Cross station for the trains if going northwards and there's a lot of redevelopment around there with new parks along the canal (it's fun to walk alongside the canal).

Central London is very walkable.

[Anonymous]

We stayed in an apartment in between S Ken and Knightsbridge and it was perfect. Close to two tube stops, double decker bus, near a bunch of museums and restaurants, and near Harrods. Loved it.

[Anonymous]

In a hotel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In a hotel.

We're a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids). We would need 2 rooms, and I'm sure that's more costly than an apartment (based on what I'm seeing online).

[Anonymous]

I think you should be open to any place with nice pictures, that's near a tube or light rail station fairly close to Tower Brudge, that seems to have some nice restaurants nearby.

We stayed on the east side, in what I suspect is regarded as an unfashionable neighborhood, and stayed in a spectacular two-bedroom
loft apartment for $150 per night. We saw all kinds of amazing things I'd never heard of before.

The choice in London is just between one fabulous location and another fabulous location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a hotel.

We're a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids). We would need 2 rooms, and I'm sure that's more costly than an apartment (based on what I'm seeing online).

Risk vs reward my friend, risk va reward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a hotel.

We're a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids). We would need 2 rooms, and I'm sure that's more costly than an apartment (based on what I'm seeing online).

Risk vs reward my friend, risk va reward.

Whatever. We typically stay in hotels, but the kids seem to enjoy living like a local when we travel to a new city. So, it's great to be in a residential area (with locally run coffee shops and restaurants) rather than a tourist area (surrounded by Pret and McDonalds...they have more Pret a Mangers in London than DC, and DC practically has one on every block!). Notting Hill is too far off the beaten path (although we enjoyed seeing celebrities out and about in that hood).

Thanks for the helpful tips thus far, and please keep them coming!

[Anonymous]

OP, the Richmond area of London is proximate to a site that I want to visit, and hotels there (a month ago when I booked my travel) were extremely inexpensive. Hope this helps.